Mortimer Menpes (British 1855-1938)Portrait of James Abbott McNeill WhistlerBlack and white chalkSigned (lower right), indistinctly inscribed (lower left)49 x 35.5cm (19¼ x 13¾ in.)Provenance:Sale, Skinner Auctioneers, Boston, 27 January 2017, lot 378 (part lot)Menpes, born in Port Adelaide, South Australia, came to England in 1875 to study at the National Art Training School, South Kensington, under Sir Edward Poynter. Whilst studying there he met Whistler, and alongside Walter Sickert became his studio assistant, printing up many of Whistler's etchings. They worked together closely until 1888, and these drawings must have been executed during that time. Menpes published a memoir of their friend, Whistler as I Knew Him, in 1904, the frontispiece of which is a lithographed portrait of Whistler in the same outfit as the present drawing.